EVE General Discussion

So, age old question probably.

Why are sentries treated like ship turrets, in the sense they can only engage targets within the drone control range of the ship. As in. I land at the beacon, deploy drones and MJD away in the oposite direction the targets are at. My drones are still within my control range, but not the targets. So when I have the drones engage, they simply don't.

Is this intended, and if so why?

It makes more sense (to me anyway) for the drones to be able to engage targets if the drones themselves are within the control range, regardless of where the target is relative to the ship.

Again, not an F&I, just curious to know why isn't this a thing.

Because what else would you call that range?

I am in favor of drone control range being abolished as part of a full drone overhaul, provided of course some compensation is provided for owners of relevant modules/rigs/bpos

You seem to not understand what the name is naming. Why would you want a name for something that already has a name?

Ok. Explain this then. Hobgobs that are engaged on a target 70km off. What is their range? *Hint* it's not 70km.

Ok, so you and I agree that the range of a drone is independant of the drone control range.

So why is that sentries that can hit up to 80km cannot engage a locked target that falls out of the drone control range?

I'll get you a picture, you don't seem to understand the problem here.

LOL.

I get what TIppia is saying just fine.

Hobgoblins can attack anything within their drone control range (which incidentally is the targets distance from the ship not from the drones). In other words you can't send them 50km to Target A and then another 50km to Target B unless your Drone Control Range is 100k+

In the same way you can't put your sentries 50km from a target, MJD to 150KM from the target and then tell the Sentries to shoot at the target unless your Drone Control Range is 150km+.

More importantly, drones are stupid. Get some Cruise Missiles and then MJD.

My solution solves the problem that has been designed into the game: that you need to fly closer to your target to attack it. It addresses your problem just fine, since that's the exact problem you're having. So again, I understand your problem just fine; you don't understand the answer I'm giving you; you also don't understand the terminology or the implications of your suggested change.

Actually, no, that's not how it works right now. You've left out a third circle that is pretty relevant for what drones will and won't attack — the proximity trigger.

Why should it work like that? Why do you want to design away the limitation that you have to move close to your target in order to attack it? Moreover, if drone control range was changed to be the range to your drones, it would mean that you would lose the ability to chase your target; the ability for drones to chase the target; and the ability to recover drones over long ranges. All of those are bad things, by the way.

It is correct regardless. Drone control range has nothing to do with the range to your drones.

The only thing in the game that has longer proximity activation is POS turrets so you're almost as wrong as can be.

…which I didn't suggest either, so I have no idea where you got that, unless you keep misunderstand what the ranges involved actually are. Again, the solution to your problem is that you are too far away from your target. The solution to that problem is to move closer to your target. Nothing about this suggestion implies anything about drone range being the same as drone control range unless you fundamentally don't understand what those two ranges represent.

No. Mechanically; gameplay-wise; balance-wise — why should it work like that? Lore is utterly and completely irrelevant as far as mechanics, gameplay, and balance is concerned. It's a completely optional after-thought, not a design consideration.

Again: the purpose of drone control range is to limit from how far away you can attack your targets. You are suggesting that this limit be removed. I'm asking you why and you're only giving me a meaningless lore answer that doesn't provide any reason. Why do you want to design away the limitation that is there to make sure you have to move close to your targets in order to attack them? Also, you do realise that if you want drone control range to do something completely different — e.g. limit how far away you can be from your drones — then it will be a massive nerf to the flexibility and usefulness of drones, right?

Good news: this is already the case. You just (still) don't understand what the different ranges — drone control range, drone optimal, drone proximity etc — represent.